Chapter 67: The Hidden Floor.
"No, no, no..."
As the group rushed down the hidden stairway, Mara, who was continuously staring at her screen, widened her eyes in horror.
Her screen, which was stable all this while, was suddenly flashing red continuously.
Desire residue.
Far too much of it.
The numbers kept climbing until the tablet stopped showing proper values and replaced them with warning marks.
"What happened?"
Ilyra asked with a solemn look on her face as the party continued moving.
"There’s too much desire residue, far, far above the normal amount, there’s fear, dependency, shame, obsession as well, but all of them are completely overwhelmed by desire.
This...
This is far different than the upper floors."
She gave a proper report.
"Continue moving.
Be careful."
Darius instructed with a solemn look on his face, he increased his speed a little. The rest of the party followed.
Lucian heard another heartbeat stop, another person was killed and as much as he wanted to break the formation and rush ahead to save more people—
He did not.
Yes, his emotions were making him act but it didn’t mean his emotions were controlling him. There was no way he was going to mindlessly charge into what was clearly the enemy’s main base, that too, on his first mission when he had no idea what to expect down there.
As the group moved, the smooth white walls faded away and were replaced with grey concrete and black metal.
"Weapons."
Darius commanded as he brought out his own weapon, it wasn’t a gun, not exactly. It looked like a short black baton with silver lines carved into the sides. When he pressed his thumb against it, the silver marks lit up with cold white light.
The rest moved as well, Tomas pulled out a blade from his belt, Ilyra took out two small papers she said were ’charms’ and pressed them between her fingers. Mara only stared at the scanner, it didn’t seem like she was much of a fighter.
As for Lucian—
He had no weapon.
Not that he needed any, not after what Vivienne did to him inside that closed Training Hall.
The deeper they went, the louder the building became, now, it wasn’t just Lucian, others in the team could hear it as well.
Rushing footsteps, people crying, things being dragged, begging, instructions—
It was chaos.
The group increased their speed and the moment they reached the bottom, they saw it.
The lower floor was one long corridor, rooms lined both sides, the doors were marked with clean black labels.
DEEP RELIEF CHAMBER.
GRIEF PROCESSING.
DEPENDENCY STABILIZATION.
HIGH-YIELD PROFILES.
ANCHOR PREPARATION.
ESSENCE STORAGE.
And the floor itself was just as they expected, chaotic.
Staff members in white uniforms ran from room to room, some pushed beds, some dragged files from cabinets, some pulled tubes out of machines, some were trying to move victims and some...
Some were killing the victims.
"AAGGGGHHHHHHH!!!"
A man in a chair was shaking as two staff members disconnected glowing threads from his chest, the moment the thread snapped, his body convulsed.
"P-Please! I-I’ve been good! Don’t—"
On the other side of the corridor, a woman was begging to be put back under, a staff member ignored her and injected something into her neck and the instant he did, she lost her voice.
"MOVE! MOVE!!
We don’t have all day!"
Farther ahead, two guards were rushing a covered stretcher toward the far end of the corridor, on the stretcher was a woman, dark brown hair with soft golden highlights, white straps around her wrists, a machine still attached to her chest.
Even from a distance, it was clear that the staff was moving her around differently. They were being more careful with her, like she mattered more than the others.
"THEY ARE HERE!!"
The instant the Enclave members came down, a guard who noticed them screamed, then, without waiting, without any warning—
He and the rest of the guards opened fire.
"Down!"
Mara screamed.
Her tablet unfolded in her hand and three blue panels burst out from it, spreading in front of the team like pieces of glass made of light.
Tak Tak Tak
Bullets struck the shield with sharp, violent ’taks’, the blue panels flashed with every hit, stopping the bullets.
"Move!"
Darius commanded.
And the next instant, the team moved.
Darius stepped to the side of the shield, firing a white bolt that struck the nearest guard in the chest.
"Aaagghh!!"
BAM
The man flew back and crashed into a door.
Tomas moved left with his blade, keeping his head low. Ilyra threw her charm towards the floor, it burst into a pale circle, covering the rear of the team.
Lucian moved as well, taking cover behind a thick metal machine near the wall.
Lucian was fast, yes, but he wasn’t faster than bullets and Vivienne made sure he knew that in her own way that Lucian didn’t even want to recall.
’Training my regeneration my ass.’
He cursed in his head as his body trembled at the memory.
The next instant however, he buried that memory in his mind and his violet eyes shined with cold clarity as he expanded his senses.
He was not faster than bullets, but he was faster than the ones shooting them.
In an instant, the entire corridor became... a rhythm.
Breathing.
Heartbeats.
Slight movements in one’s fingers, shoulders, wrist.
The way the body weight was distributed before they shot—
Lucian started seeing it all and he started moving accordingly.
He kept himself along the sides, constantly hiding behind different covers every time a guard aimed at him and slowly, he reached a dead guard.
Well, not exactly dead, Darius’s bolt had thrown him back, he was still alive, his gun was only a few inches away from him. He tried to grab it, but Lucian got there first.
Lucian stepped on his wrist and—
CRACK
He crushed his bone.
"AAAGGHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The guard screamed, Lucian didn’t care. He picked up the gun, then his eyes directly moved towards the guard who was aiming at Ilyra, who was kneeling beside a victim, clearly unaware of the threat.
Bang
Lucian aimed at the guard and fired without hesitation.
The shot missed, it moved past the guard’s head and struck the wall, the sound however, was enough for Ilyra to know of his existence. She threw a charm on the ground and a vine pierced through the guard’s body, killing him instantly.
Ilyra then turned back towards Lucian and nodded with a thankful smile.
